What are the symptoms of constipation in children?
Constipation can be very uncomfortable. Your child may say they have a stomach ache or that ‘doing a poo’ hurts. Here are some signs that your child may be constipated. • Fewer bowel movements than normal: Your child may not have a bowel movement for several days. • Pain and straining when passing stools: Stools that your child holds in for a long time get hard and dry. These are more difficult to pass, and your child may say it hurts. They may get anxious and upset trying to go to the toilet. • Stomach ache: Your child may get cramps and feel bloated and queasy because of the build-up of stools in the bowels. These feelings go away after your child ‘does a poo’. But they’ll come back if your child’s bowels fill up too much again. • Small, dry, and hard stools: The bowels take water out of stools, so the stools dry out and get hard if they stay in there too long. Some children with constipation pass small amounts of pellet-like stools fairly often. Others won’t pass a stool for several
